Speaking Out For Free Software In India

inode_buddha writes "We all know how RMS and Bill Gates toured India recently, with mostly mixed reviews. The reviews don't seem so mixed after reading this memo regarding the use of software in Indian schools... and it's interesting how quickly these people pick up on the business. IMHO, this letter ranks up there with the Peruvian Congressman's letter to Microsoft in clarity and impact. People worldwide are beginning to wake up, and this needs to be shouted from the (networked) hills... "

Comments

the people woke up, now we have to

[Stanley Feinbaum]

I am very glad that some people in the world are beginning to 'get it' when it comes to open source. Even if microsoft has crippling control over America, open-source still has a chance in other parts of the world.

Now it is our duty as an open-source community to create USABLE software that any Indian government official, or peruvian office worker, can use. Now that people are starting to see the light, we need to standardize a gui (I would say gnome is the most user friendly and usable one), standardize a web browser (mozilla anyone?), remove the need for archaic unix 'command prompts' and create a good suite of office tools that are on par with microsoft office.

Now is our chance to have open-source software become popular throughout the world, we just have to make sure that it can compete and is compatible with microsoft's products before people will make the big switch!

Blah blah "Oh Microsoft is evil, use OSS"

[Second_Derivative]

Yes we know. Yes we've heard it all before. Yes it's nice that some people are realising this. But we also know that no matter how many humble recommendations the actually knowledgeable people submit, Microsoft is still going to bribe and strong-arm their way into this market as well.

Show me a nationwide IT deployment that doesn't run Microsoft and then I'll REALLY be impressed. As it stands though ... yeah it's nice but it ultimately doesn't mean much. I haven't heard much about that Peruvian Free Software bill making much progress either. (then again, Peru hates American influence just about enough for that to have a hope of happening, I think)

Re:People are starting to catch on?

[stubear]

Wow, bashing the US and Microsoft in one post and it hasn't been modded up to +5 insightful yet? Wake up the moderators, they appear to be asleep at the wheel again.